Stone 11.11.11 Vertical Epic Ale | Stone Brewing

0 characters.
We love reviews! Turn your rating into one with ≥ 150 characters. Awesome. Thanks for the review!

In English, explain why you're giving this rating. Your review must discuss the beer's attributes (look, smell, taste, feel) and your overall impression in order to indicate that you have legitimately tried the beer. Nonconstructive reviews may be removed without notice and action may be taken on your account.

Notes / Commercial Description:
As with any good epic, herein lies the promise of larger-than-life experiences, heroics and twists & turns as the adventure unfolds. These bottle-conditioned ales are specifically designed to be aged until sometime after December 12th, 2012. Provided you can wait that long. At that time, enjoy them in a "vertical" tasting. Each one unique to it's year of release. Each with its own "twist & turn" in the plotline. Each one released one year, one month and one day from the previous year's edition. To remind you, the remaining dates are: 12.12.12

Since I am no longer a huge hop head, I am wondering what a stone will taste like to me now.

A-a nice amber, reddish collor with a lite head with a nice lacing.

S-smell hops right in front, lots of piney hops too. Then a bit of a malt background.

T-ugh!! That was rough!! hops with a nutmeg flavor. ugh again, like tasting pine sol. nasty!! I drank a nice 4 year old barleywine before this so I am wondering if it is just not a good match. but ugh!! this stuff sucks. Lemony piney, f yeah!! Pine Sol is all I can think about.

m-can't get over the flavor to get the mouthfeel. dumping this crap down the drain now.

Bottle picked up from Rick's in Alexandria. Served in a Stone Vertical Epic glass that can be described as stemless martini-like.

Pours a dark golden-copper color with a good white head and some lacing. The nose brings forward plenty of chilis plus a moderate amount of cinnamon and light malt. Taste is a bit odd at first, getting worse as it warms. As expected, the flavors don't come together at all. Terrible idea; bad execution. Not really looking forward to this again in 2012, but I suppose I must. Finish was grossly dry. Bad.

S: Very Belgian. Dark fruit, cinnamon, apple, and a weird vanilla smell I can't quite place. Very spicy smelling for a Belgian.

T: Really really spicy - this thing has tons of flavor! Nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves (that's one of the things I couldn't place in the smell), some fruit, hops come out stronger than I thought they would, and a bit of toasty malt. This is VERY different from any other beer I've ever tried. I think the spice flavors are a bit too strong - they overpower the hops and make this taste more like cold cinnamon and spice herbal tea than beer. It's not my thing, but I'm sure there's people out there that like this. I just read the bottle - indeed, they put in whole cinnamon sticks and a yeast with heavy clove overtones. They also added Anaheim peppers, which is probably the other flavor I can't place. Honestly, I don't get this.

M: A little oily, good carbonation. Medium body.

D: Not really drinkable - it tastes too weird for me. This is sad because if they hadn't gotten so carried away with adding every strong flavor possible, this could have been good.

The smell had promise (at least, the promise of a solid base), but the flavor of this beer is ruined by an epic spice/adjunct overload that vertically sodomizes my tastebuds. The clove/banana/medicine has a lot of promise, but does not mesh well with other flavors. The solvent-y alcohol-y ness of this beer is surprising given it is only 9.6 abv. The chiles are unnecessary and distracting, and do not mesh with the belgian semi-sweet base. The yeast is swallowed up by competing and distracting flavors. It's like cats drenched in various spices are fighting for supremacy in my mouth, and no matter who wins, I lose.

It's a shame what they did to a beer that obviously started with promise. I mean ... this is one of the more solid Belgian bases that Stone has come up with in recent years, and the unnecessary detritus they heaped into it has really detracted from the overall appeal.

(S)- An up front blast of chili pepper. Subtle bits of biscuit and raisin.

(T)- A brighter amber malt profile with plenty of the chili pepper from the smell.

(M)- A good carbonation level. Some subtle caramel sweetness in the background, but it seems to me that the chili pepper has sort of become the dominate spice in this.

(O)- The chili pepper is prevalent, but is at least somewhat balanced out by the underlying sweetness this still has. Overall, though, I think this might be my least favorite of the whole vertical despite it being one of the freshest. As a whole, it just feels like a mish mash of randomness.

This is one of the most beeyoutiful looking beverages I think I've ever seen. Deep Mahoganish brown. Amazing color.

Unfortunately for me, that is the best I can say about this particular pour. It has a slight whiff of Root Beer and RED HOTS. The taste is also RED HOTS with a bit of banana thrown in, maybe a bunch of cloves and a hint of cinnamon.

One very interesting aftertaste. Think Ancho chili smoke and again, RED HOTS. After awhile it gets a bit bitter and even smokier. Like a liquid, hot, candied smoke.

I think the hot edginess would only get amplified with time. And I'm not certain I will give this another try.

Pours a dark ruby almost brown color with a tan head, good retention and lacing down the glass.

Smells of candi sugar, cinnamon and booze.

Taste is all over the place. Sweet candi sugar and spicy Belgian yeast are present then the chili and cinnamon kick in along with some spicy hops. It's like flavors are just being randomly thrown at my tongue.

Medium mouthfeel with a slick oily finish. Medium-low carbonation. A bit of a burn from both chiles and alcohol makes this one difficult to drink and I split the bottle. A whole one would be too much.

Maybe I only like the even years of this series. This beer was a huge mess for me. Lots of flavors, but they seemed to clash and be out of whack. This beer seems to have an identity crisis. Maybe the flavors will mellow out in a year and there will be a wonderful cohesion, but right now it's bad.

Look: Pours a medium brown color with traces of red throughout. 1 inch tan head with good retention. Leaves behind a spot or two of lace

Smell: The nose carries a fair amount of cinnamon and banana which reminds me of a banana flavored laffy taffy and definitely some belgian yeast

Taste: The flavor is not very good at all. It's a combination of flavors that honeslty do not go together at all. The cinnamon is too sweet for the chili's and the banana just feels out of place and artificial. As the beer warms it becomes chalky. Not good

Mouthfeel: Medium body and medium to high carbonation and a bit of a sting from the chilis

Copper color with a two finger foamy light tan head with good retention and lacing. the aroma has cinnamon, chili peppers, pale malt, Belgian yeast, bananas, and cloves. Interesting combination. If this beer tastes like it smells, I'm not sure if this combination of ingredients is going to work well together. Only one way to find out.

It's different, that's for sure. It tastes like it smells. Cinnamon, chili peppers, pale malt, Belgian yeast, bananas and cloves all in the same beer. The main problem is the chili peppers are too strong, and overpower most of the other ingredients. I can tell the other ingredients are present, but the chili peppers should not have been so dominant. They are not to hot or spicy, but you can definitely tell they are in the beer.

Medium bodied with average carbonation. The aftertaste is mostly cinnamon and chili peppers. I think if Cinnamon and chili peppers are going to be added to beer, it should be added to an imperial stout, and taste like Hunahpu's. This isn't bad, but not as good as it should be. I do applaud Stone for continuing to experiment, but I don't think this beer is entirely successful.